The $5 Swedish Dishcloths We Can’t Stop Talking About

If you were a fly on the walls of Apartment Therapy Media’s various Slack channels, you’d know that we can nerd out about some pretty, well, nerdy things: vegetable peelers, spatulas, sheet pans, drawer organizers… Yeah, we are cool! Recently, all we can talk about are these DII Swedish Dishcloths — and we had to share!

Buy: DII Swedish Dishcloths, $16 for three

These 7.75-by-6.75-inch sponge-dishcloth hybrids are made of environmentally friendly cellulose (wood pulp!) and cotton. When dry, they are stiff as a board, but once you wet them, they’re capable of absorbing up to fifteen times their own weight in liquid. Watching them come to life is almost like a magic trick. Best of all, they’re incredibly easy to clean. Just throw them in the dishwasher or in the washing machine and they’ll be good as new again.

“My friends and I were talking about the best thing we bought all year and it got me thinking about these Swedish dishcloths that have literally changed my life,” says Vijay Nathan, our Director of Product.” He uses them to keep the area around the sink dry and after washing dishes to mop up the puddles that accumulate on the dish rack. He also uses them to clean the counters. “When you first feel it, it feels like cardboard, but the second it gets a little wet it turns into an absorption machine.”

“The one thing I really love is that I can just wash it with dish soap and water in the sink after a quick job and hang it to dry quickly,” Vijay adds. He loves them so much upon purchasing that he immediately bought more to give as gifts.

Jane Wood, Senior Product Manager, also swears by these. “I use them for basically anything I used to use paper towels for: cleaning up spills, wiping down our tables, cleaning the counters, etc.” Lisa Freedman, our Lifestyle Director, and Danielle Blundell the Home Director at Apartment Therapy are among the countless others on staff who also sing the praises of these small-but-mighty towels. (Seriously, so many people in the company use these things!)

What do you think? Would you try this paper towel alternative?